Monty Sheldon & Piece of the Game’s Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces Are Coming This Spring

All good things are worth waiting for.  Originally scheduled to be released last November, Piece of the Game and Monty Sheldon’s Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces is now planned to go live near the end of March.

This is truly a unique product.  Only (15) cases will be produced.  Housed inside each case are (10) game-used, autographed, and hand-painted baseballs.  Monty Sheldon is the artistic genius behind all of the original artwork.  He’s been using baseballs as a medium for over twenty years.  You probably recognize his name from the various projects he’s worked on for Topps.  Some of his baseballs were even included in 2017 Topps Transcandent.

They went all out on the packaging too.  Every baseball comes packaged in an LED lit maple or ash wooden box.  Very high-end stuff.

(150) baseballs make up the entire set.  When it comes to the main player set, each player will have (6) baseballs – (3) portrait shots and (3) action shots.  There are also rookie balls, and dual signed hand-painted balls as well.

Somewhere within the (15) cases there will be a Babe Ruth authentic autographed, and hand-painted baseball.  We have yet to see this one, but I bet it will be really cool looking.

Wondering about documentation?  They’ve got you covered.  Each baseball comes with a hologram and serial number which will allow you to look-up in their database to see that specific baseball’s identity.  MLB Debut Balls, Triples, Doubles, Singles, RBI’s, Fouls, Pitch In Dirt, Record Breaking Hits, Playoff Hits, and Defense Play baseballs are all in here.

Cases have been allocated to Steel City Collectibles, Blowout Cards, Layton Sports Cards, GTS Distribution, and Ripping Wax.  A single case will run about $36,000.  Group break spots have been selling for about $3,600.  I’m really interested to see how these perform on the secondary market.

Updated Sales Sheet – Page 1, Page 2.

Flashback Product of the Week: 1983 Tudor Games NFL Huddles Mascot Figures

What is it about toys from the 80’s that drive prices through the roof?  It has to be the nostalgic factor.

Tudor Games is best known for it’s vibrating electronic tabletop football game.  Outside the realm of tabletop football, Tudor Games did go off and make some other sports related toys.  One of their ventures was their line of NFL Huddles Mascots.  These lovable mascots could be found as stuffed toys, trading cards, pins, cars, and miniature figures.  They had these little guys plastered on anything and everything.  Of all the items they made, their miniature figures and stuffed toys are what collectors seem to want the most.

The miniature figure line covers all 28 teams, just like most of their other NFL Huddles Mascots products.  They contain no moving parts and come packaged on a cheap piece of cardboard.  For being just the most basic form of a toy, these things can carry one heck of a price.  As it is with most collectibles, condition is everything.  People want these mint in package and untouched as much as possible.  Prices can be all over the place.  Some figures sealed in their original packs sell for $20.00, while others can go for as much as $150.00.  That’s not a bad return for something that could be purchased for $2.99 in 1983.  If you think that’s crazy, a collector recently purchased a Buccaneers plush for over $400.00.  The NFL Huddles card set doesn’t have much value.  Just like most card sets from the 80’s.

“Pin-Up” of the Week: Die-Hard Duck 300 Games Pin

The only reason this is the “Pin-Up” of the Week is because I was looking for an excuse to post the new Die Hard trailer 🙂

Flashback Product of the Week: 1994-95 Canada Games NHL Pogs

Pogs were one of the biggest fads of the 1990’s.  I remember having canisters filled with these little disks.  They gained popularity almost as fast as kids lost interest in them.  If I remember correctly, this is how you played.

1. Each player picks which pogs from their collection they will play with.  Usually each player must put in an equal amount.
2. Place the pogs upside down with the backs facing up.
3. Each player has what they call a “slammer” or “slug” which looks and feels like a heavy pog.  Most of the time they were made with plastic or metal.  Drop the “slammer” or “slug” on the stack to see how many pogs you can flip over.
4. Remove the pogs that flipped over and whoever has the most pogs at the end wins.

Today pogs aren’t worth that much.  I’m sure there are some rare occasions where one sells for a ton of money, but most are worthless.  The designs are fun to look at.  My local mall had a pog stand at the height of their popularity.

Manufacturers put almost anything they could think of on pogs.  Cartoon characters, T.V. shows, movies, superheroes, books, and even anti-drug messages.  Its not surprising that sports figures made their way onto these little things.

1994-95 Canada Games NHL Pogs was one of the sports related sets.  In fact, the Canada Games Company was one of the driving forces behind the entire pogs fad.  This set consists of 376 pogs and 8 checklists.  Each pack contained 5 pogs.

I highly doubt we’ll see these make a comeback anytime soon.

The Playground or Out-Door Games for Boys

In 1953 Congress officially declared Alexander Cartwright the inventor of the modern game of baseball.  Before that, a heated battle went on debating whether Cartwright or Abner Doubleday was the true inventor.  To this day scholars still debate over it, but Cartwright is recognized as the true inventor of the modern game.  One of the pieces of evidence used in the investigation to help declare Cartwright the true inventor was a book published in 1866 titled The Playground or Out-Door Games for Boys.  Inside it describes various activities for children to participate in so they could get some outside activity.  One of these activities is the game of Base-Ball.  It takes you through the basic rules of the game and teaches you everything from how the bases work to how you should use the bat.

This sure isn’t something you see everyday.  Recently a copied surfaced on eBay and the seller was asking $3,500.00 for it.  I think its really interesting to see the game of baseball referenced in such an old book.  Believe it or not, but the world “baseball” was used in a book published in the 18th century, many years before the one pictured below.  Good luck finding either.  Both are extremely rare and expensive.

When this book was published, Connie Mack was only 4 years old.  For a true baseball fan, this book would make one cool collectible.

What Else Do I Get Crazy About? – MLB Dugout Heroes

This post is a response to an article I saw on A Cardboard Problem yesterday.  Every weekend they have a Sunday question.  Yesterday’s question asked collectors whether they get crazy about something else other than baseball cards.  In my response, I can say I do.  Along with collecting sports cards and other memorabilia, I am a huge fan of the video game MLB Dugout Heroes.  I discovered this game last summer after seeing an advertisement on YouTube and I have been playing ever since.  You choose a team to play as (I picked the Phillies), then you just start playing online games with other people.  The currency in the game is “Nuts” and as you make more money by playing you can purchase upgrades for your team.  Some of the upgrades include sunglasses, gloves, bats, and shoes.  The best thing about this game is that its totally FREE!!

For years I was addicted to playing video games.  I had a bunch of systems ranging from the old NES to a PlayStation 2.  I sold every piece of gaming equipment a few years ago because I got bored and decided to do more collecting.  If your a baseball fan and a gamer, I highly suggest trying it out.  I like the way the players look.  Usually video game manufacturers try and make the athletes look as real as possible.  With MLB Dugout Heroes, the players look like cartoons.  If you decide to jump on board, my Phillies team name is SportsCardInfo.  I’m far from the best at it, but its still really fun.  My Phillies are more like last year’s Nationals.

This is suppose to be Ryan Howard 🙂

In case anyone was wondering.  I have almost 700,000 “Nuts”.

Should Sports Cards Be In Video Games?

For years manufacturers have been trying to get more people interested in The Hobby.  One of the main demographics companies have been targeting is kids.  With all the high-tech toys out on the market, one of the last things many kids find interesting is sports cards.  Products such as Topps Attax and MLB Showdown are just a few of the many products companies have created to try and attract more kids to the industry, but it hasn’t really worked too well.  I highly doubt that even the Topps 3D venture will go far.  The last thing kids want to be treated like is kids.  This is why many of the kid friendly products don’t perform too well.  If I were “Hobby King” for the day you want to know what I’d do?  I’d try to incorporate sports cards into popular video games such as Madden and MLB The Show.  I’m not saying devote an entire portion of the game to cards, but slightly incorpate trading cards into the game.  For example, when reading the bio of your favorite player there could be a section that lists some of their key cards that have been made up to that point.  Since most of the popular entertainment systems have internet access, why not allow people to click on one of those key cards and provide them with more information.  Perhaps it could even point them in the right direction of where to purchase cards like that.  If a company really wanted to get involved with the gaming industry, maybe they could sponsor online events and the winners could obtain certain products.  Current manufacturers don’t seem to get very far when they try and do this stuff by themselves.  I think they need to see what people are interested in and try to incorporate themselves into that market.  What most manufacturers have done so far is the total opposite.  They try to create something slightly innovative and then hope people will come to them, when in reality it should be the other way around.